So we were at the play area, and Kalia went to play with a group of girls. I was half listening, up until the moment where they said "what's your name" to each other.

"Kalia""Me too"

They were completely unphased and carried on playing. I jumped up to go and check if her name really was Kalia. She said yes, but when I asked how her Kalia was spelt, she couldn't tell me the letters, but just the sounds "Ka lia". So I went to check with the Mum.

We were both very surprised to discover that our daughters weren't the only ones in the whole of Switzerland - and what's more that we only live a few miles apart. As it turns out, they are still unique, because her spelling is Calia. It was a very nice surprise, and they got on really well for the short time they were playing together. So we swapped phone numbers, and maybe we'll meet up some time. Calia has a little sister who is a bit older than Rebecca, so it could be a good fit.

Sunday 6th was beautiful weather. In the afternoon while Rebecca was (supposed to be) having her nap, Kalia and I went out on our trotinnettes. She showed me the way to a play area where she "used to go with Flore" - that'll be Flore who babysat her before she was 3! It amazes me how good her memory is for things like that.

She had a great time playing with friends who she made on the spot (including one very surprising one, more on that soon), while I soaked up lots of sun and generally just sat there contemplatin'.

I'm quite pleased with the composition of this photo - the two trots against the bench. Framed to avoid the bin off the the left. The hedge conveniently hides the town below and just leaves the tops of the mountains showing. Did you spot the plane?

I can't really call it a hobby, but for years (ok, decades), I've been carrying round a collection of "funny" company names in my brain. Names which are weird, but which please my mind. Here presented in chronological order, starting with Norbert Dentressangle.

I'm not sure how I came to know about Drinkwater Sabey, from what I can tell searching on the net, they ceased to exist years ago.

Another company that I discovered in Brittany is "Barthélemy Auffray" - a professional cooking-ware supplier. Couldn't find a web site for them, or even a logo, I even unsuccessfully searched for a Google Streetview of one of their shops!

Finally, there is Rannou Métivier, who I actually have a connection with. When I did my French exchange to Nantes during my engineering degree, my project was to invent a machine which would make their 'macarons' - up until that point they were done by hand. I managed to dream up something, but others had the hard task of turning my dreams into reality. I've no idea if they still use my machine...

I was trying to get her to keep the magnifying glass in front of her eye, to get the 'bug eye' effect, but she couldn't keep still long enough. As you can see, she drew on the glass, so she hasn't quite twigged what the magnifying glass is for yet.

I have vague recollections, from way back when, of listening in on 'grown up' discussions between Christians who were debating the merits (or otherwise) of fantasy and fiction. Some of them maintained that you shouldn't give fantasy books to your children to read - not because they risked falling into occultism, but because fantasy concerns non-real worlds, not the world that God created for us to live in.

I think there was an exception for 'normal' fiction, but I'm not sure.

Nowadays that kind of "'logical' but completely devoid of common sense" thinking sets off my air-raid sirens.

I was reminded of these discussions recently because I realised that it is essential to cultivate our children's imaginations if we want to teach them the Golden Rule. I've observed over time that the people who are the worse at "doing unto others as they'd like to have them done to" are those who can't "put themselves in another's shoes": they can't project themselves onto someone else's reality.